The weekend of June 29-30th, Ride Studio Cafe hosted our very first multiple-day ride. It was the longest and hardest ride we've ever done and we multiplied the Sul Posto stops by 14! Considering the smiles of all involved, it was clearly something that was worth the effort and something we want to repeat.

This is a ride we've been planning for a year and actively working on for months. Everyone who works at Ride Studio Cafe was in on the action as well as some of our club members and professionals in the bike tour industry.

At 2am the morning of the ride, our fine food preparers were going strong. Led by Ariela, the team of foodies and energetic helpers made enough food to feed many hungry cyclists from breakfast till dinner for two full days. Not a trivial task.

Cyclists convened at 5am Saturday morning to eat breakfast of homemade everything and fuel up for a very long day in the saddle. The ride began around 6:30am for those who rode from RSC to the top of Mt. Greylock and the last cyclists who did the full ride arrived at the top of Mt. Greylock - the highest point in Massachusetts - at 10:30pm that night. The total for Saturday: 161 miles and over 16,000 feet of climbing.

The route, designed by Pamela Blalock, was beautiful and on the quietest, most scenic back roads the whole way through Massachusetts.

The cyclists ate a lot (which we encouraged). We had Sul Posto stops every ~30 miles which was necessary to fuel up on water, easy-to-digest calories and cold brew with the heat and middle-of-nowhere nature of where we rode. In the foreground is Cristiano, Italian bike tour guide and superb Sul Posto support amongst many hats he wore throughout the planning and execution of Highpoint.

There was a lot of wildlife out there. This little guy came out to say hi to Roger, one of our outstanding Sul Posto super domestiques who took many of the wonderful photos we have of the trip.

Here's Roger in action fixing Katie's bike. This has to be the only time Roger was caught not smiling ear-to-ear, he had so much fun. But he worked tirelessly from Friday to Sunday first helping with making the food, serving breakfast and then supporting the Sul Posto and cyclists every minute of both days.

What a view from the top of Mt. Greylock! Pamela looks down below. She broke her collarbone only a couple of weeks ago but felt good enough to still be able to ride 220 miles Saturday and Sunday on the tandem with her husband, John.

Patria and Katie finished their ride from RSC to Mt. Greylock under the night sky. Their way was lit by Marc who drove behind them illuminating the path. Katie came all of the way from California to do this ride!

The group stayed at Bascom Lodge at the top of the mountain, a fine establishment. They made us a full dinner, offering us everything we could possibly delight in having. And that's not easy: after eating thousands of calories all day, the food had to be just right to sit well in stomachs of these cyclists.

And what is more delightful than having a hot espresso drink served to you by Steve (aka @figtreecoffee)? Not only did Steve serve up 3 or more drinks per cyclist in Bascom Lodge using all of his espresso and coffee equipment that he brought along, but he started dialing in the espresso machine and getting the pressure right on it at 3:30am. He loves coffee and making everyone's morning perfect!

Did we mention that the scenery was divine? Photos by John Bayley.

Drew and Geneen fueling up at a Sul Posto with Steve looking on...making sure they were drinking enough cold brew!

More scenery that made the climbing go by significantly faster and easier.

And there were the requisite photos taken at the top of Greylock as well as group photos...

There were many more cyclists on the road already pedaling by this time, but it was a little bit of a challenge to get going so early the day after such a long ride for some. These folks were particularly patient in posing for these photos!

Here are quite a few getting going on the road after the very fun descent Sunday morning.

And once everyone returned to the Studio Sunday evening, it was time to enjoy dinner and stories of the weekend...while the group awaited Henry who was determined to ride the whole way back (which he did successfully).

Henry is the Flying Dutchman for good reason.

Dinner was lovingly prepared by RSC staff who had, on top of all of the food prep, worked a full weekend at the Studio. Drew and Ariela also manned the Highpoint Hotline throughout the weekend. The Hotline was the command-and-control center for all of the Sul Posto vehicles and riders so that great communication could be maintained. The Hotline was successful in keeping track of everyone all over Massachusetts!
And still a very incomplete picture of all who rode and who worked to support the weekend, but a nice view of many of the great people who were part of Highpoint. Everyone is shown wearing their Highpoint t-shirts...something we'll all be wearing for a long time to come to remind us of the many memories and accomplishments of the Highpoint weekend!